I Hate Television

[jon abbey]

I have sadly watched Gossip Girl since the beginning and am still doing so, not sure I'd recommend that anyone else with more than half a brain follow my lead.

[leroysghost]

So Revenge is awesome, Gossip Girl level awesome (they only waited seven episodes to get to the teenage prison catfights). It's as enjoyable as the frequency of over the shoulder shots of disingenuous embraces, so all you half brainers out there should get on board ASAP, and bring your thinking caps.

[leroysghost]

Boardwalk Empire redux. No longer just boobs and banality, this show is now a True Blood magnitude shitstorm. Perversely watchable, perfection is randomly attained in the moments when one is not forced to view through ones fingers. Gretchen Mol had been a highlight, that is until they (literally) blew her incestuous tension wad to the flash of a passing train (yep, it's frequently that bad). It often feels like a game of exquisite corpse, from week to week characters can change 180 degrees and forget things they should have previously aware of. Weird fuckin' show.

Another weird one is The Good Wife, which does some delightful character sketches on the off chance you caught it on a week where it wasn't a dull courtroom procedural.

[leroysghost]

The Hour

State Of Play meets Mad Men, and despite how bandwagon jumpy that sounds, it's quite good. Word on the street is Peter Capaldi will be on board for season two, so that's something to look forward to.

[Mo Noyz]

Kinda looks like Drew Barrymore in that pic.

[leroysghost]

In that pic she kinda does, but in fact she's the much more awesomely named Romola Garai.

[leroysghost]

Intriguing enough pilot for Luck. Well written and acted, with especially good interplay between Hoffman and Farina. The downside being that the storylines seem pretty by the numbers (paroled mobster playing possum while plotting revenge, washed up trainer somehow in possession of horse with miracle lineage, rag tag group of gamblers hit it big together and now have to safeguard against each others greed/gambling addictions) but there is no reason that can't change as the season progresses. Not surprised HBO put David Milch on a leash after the John From Cincinati debacle, but it's a waste of a leash if you replace him with the equally gonzo Michael Mann. Go figure.

[savantgarde]

This Is England is finally back on the telly, so happy. This Is England 88.

[leroysghost]

Skins 3G.
They have deviously managed to suck me back in once again. While the sting of betrayal from series 2-4 is now gone, the plots are still piss poor and everyone is a fairly thin stereotype. damn though, what an attractive bunch of fuckers they've thrown at me to keep me watching. Aside from the hipster/stoner/geek/farmboy (let's force all the alt tropes on the ginger kid) and the Greek/Levantine rugby twins (the above expression is the only one that dude sports the entire series), everyone else is unreasonable charismatic and beautiful. A flowing mane metalhead, a georgous lanky shorthair with braces (that the show hilariously attempts to pass off as an androgyne), a posh and pretty biracial ballerina, a freckle faced black latch-key kid, and a snobby blonde Scot. I can't resist. I hated all the storylines yet I'm psyched for series six. sigh.

[leroysghost]

Misfits

Another two season wonder, which (in typical British fashion) shit the bed once it got popular enough that it would have been financially unsound not to squeeze as much blood out of the stone as possible (despite a total lack of ideas and a dependable hemorrhaging of cast members). But until they baldfacedly burn the whole thing to the ground with an atrocious Christmas special, this was a enormously fun and super campy take on the superpowers genre (including such delights as a supervillain who can control dairy and a club drug that reverses superpowers).

[savantgarde]

Misfits

Another two season wonder, which (in typical British fashion) shit the bed once it got popular enough that it would have been financially unsound not to squeeze as much blood out of the stone as possible (despite a total lack of ideas and a dependable hemorrhaging of cast members). But until they baldfacedly burn the whole thing to the ground with an atrocious Christmas special, this was a enormously fun and super campy take on the superpowers genre (including such delights as a supervillain who can control dairy and a club drug that reverses superpowers).

It's a pretty stupid show, granted, but I absolutely love Joseph Gilgun in it. I can't help myself laughing out loud from the shit he pulls

[schiksalgemeinschaft]

Homeland is pretty good, 6 episodes in, good acting, good story.

[leroysghost]

good story.

really? i don't have Showtime so i haven't actually watched it, but it sounds like fear mongering 24-esque bullshit to me.

[schiksalgemeinschaft]

good story.

really? i don't have Showtime so i haven't actually watched it, but it sounds like fear mongering 24-esque bullshit to me.

no, not at all, it's actually more drama than anything else. okay, the angle is CIA and there is a thriller-aspect, but it's focussed on the story of the characters, mainly a POW returning home and Claire Danes' character, a CIA-operative with her own demons, but there's the wife of the POW and some others too. I'm actually starting episode 8 now via put locker, episode 7 was the best yet. give it a try, it grows every episode. it kinda tricks people into thinking there watching a crime/spy-show, but it's isn't, maybe the first couple of episodes because you don't know the characters yet since developing them takes time.

a terrorist-angle tv show can't be more different than 24 this.

[leroysghost]

i don't know a POW turned into a legitimate al-Qaeda operative is just a bridge too far. where can that premise possibly go that won't suck, even if there is some good character drama along the way?

[schiksalgemeinschaft]

i don't know a POW turned into a legitimate al-Qaeda operative is just a bridge too far. where can that premise possibly go that won't suck, even if there is some good character drama along the way?

yeah but it's more complicated than that, since that premise doesn't really hold. there's hardly any action (2 people have been murdered in 8 episodes, no other action what so ever), hardly any thrills, the focus isn't al-Qaeda, it's a slow show. that drama is the thing, it's not something along the way. It might be badly marketed.

but if you don't like plots that involve CIA, some good old 24/7 observation or a occasional lie detector interrogation scene, sure, than it's nothing for you, but again, it's not the main thing. It might become more thriller oriented for the last couple of episodes, don't know.

[mudd]

any of you guys enjoyed terriers while it aired or after? apart from the unshakeable feeling that it's a kurt russell / robert downey junior vehicle featuring neither of them, i'm liking it a lot 3 episodes in.

m

[leroysghost]

yeah it was really good for most of the season. they kind of fucked up the climax, but it might have been a rush job after they got canceled.

[schiksalgemeinschaft]

Homeland

i don't know a POW turned into a legitimate al-Qaeda operative is just a bridge too far. where can that premise possibly go that won't suck, even if there is some good character drama along the way?

yeah but it's more complicated than that, since that premise doesn't really hold. there's hardly any action (2 people have been murdered in 8 episodes, no other action what so ever), hardly any thrills, the focus isn't al-Qaeda, it's a slow show. that drama is the thing, it's not something along the way. It might be badly marketed.

but if you don't like plots that involve CIA, some good old 24/7 observation or a occasional lie detector interrogation scene, sure, than it's nothing for you, but again, it's not the main thing. It might become more thriller oriented for the last couple of episodes, don't know.

I just finished the entire season. Really, highly recommended. Jaw-dropping at times, incredible acting from Claire Danes (to fully appreciate the range she's got, you have to watch at least to episode 7, even 10). It would definitely make my top 10 list of series. Maybe even the top 5, if they keep the level up in the next season.

The balance and interaction between CIA-stuff and drama is so well thought out.

Anyone else's seen it?

[Gerardo A]

[Some spoilers]

Yeah, just finished this first season myself, and agree that Claire Danes' acting is a highlight. (That mental breakdown of her in the last episode, damn! And an electroshock to boot!) I was also suspicious about its ideology when it started (never saw 24 but had the misfortune of seeing Generation Kill, the only piece of shit in David Simon's ouvre AFAIK) but so far I've not had any major conflicts with it. I'm a little scared about season 2, (mainly, on how they will develop her character now that she's out of the CIA,) though, and I don't think I'd put it in my TV top 10 at all, but agree that it's a good watch.